Members of a top US vaccine advisory panel voted today to roll back a decades-old recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth ' a measure that has been associated with a sharp decline in mother-to-child transmission of the hepatitis B virus, which causes liver disease. Newborn vaccination is still recommended for babies born to mothers who have tested positive for the virus, or whose mothers' infection status is unknown. But for babies born to mothers who have tested negative for the hepatitis B virus, the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) now recommends that decisions be made individually ' and suggests that babies who do not receive a 'birth dose' of the vaccine be vaccinated no earlier than the age of two months. The vote came after more than a day of discussion that was at times confused and contentious. Several members of the panel have previously expressed broad criticism of vaccines, and continued to do so at this...
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